January 19, 2018

Academic departments are eligible to receive a $10 per student fee for courses in which the instructor teaches from approved open/alternative resources.

The fee will be divided between the supporting department — 90 percent — and the Open/Alternative Textbook Initiative — 10 percent. Its purpose is to encourage faculty and departments to incorporate and retain open/alternative resources in their classes in place of expensive traditional textbooks.

The fee also provides some stable funding for the Open/Alternative Textbook Initiative, which awards financial support to faculty members who convert their courses to open/alternative resources, thereby passing cost savings on to their students.

If you teach a course that uses a free open or alternative resource that does not require students to buy materials for your course, you can submit an application to have the fee applied to your course for summer 2018, fall 2018 and spring 2019 semesters.

This application is only necessary for courses in which the instructor implemented the open/alt materials without receiving support from the Open/Alternative Textbook Fund.